Speed Issue

[chucklas]

Ok, now that I am having the same issue on 2 computers I figure I should bring it up.  It seems as though every AGS game I play I cannot adjust the speed to more than say 60fps.  If I set it higher than that, it will run right around 60 fps.  On occasion it will speed up to whatever it is set at for a few seconds then revert back to the slower speed.

Here is some info on my 2 computers with the issue.
Computer 1:
  Desktop, Dell XPS intel i7 processor 8GB ram, AMD Radeon graphics card (can't remember off hand the model).  I am running Window 7 64 bit.

Computer 2:
    Laptop, Toshiba Satellite s855, intel i7 processor, 8GB ram, Intel integrated graphics, also Windows 7 64 bit.

The only things in common that really seem to make sense to be the problem would be either issues with the i7 chip or perhaps windows 7, or a combination of the 2.  Anyone else out there have any issues like this?  Anyone know of a possible solution?  I have searched through the forums to no avail.  Like I said, this occurs on ALL AGS games, including games that I am programming.  It really makes no difference.

[Crimson Wizard]

As far as I know, there's a built in limit of 40 fps in AGS.

[chucklas]

40 is default, but can be set to 10-1000.

http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/manual/SetGameSpeed.htm

[DoorKnobHandle]

Google VSync!

It's a very common setting that tells your GPU to only render a maximum of 60 or 120 frames per second because that's the rate at which your monitor updates. This cancels out stripe artifacts on the screen when you move the player around in 2d platformer games for example but it also limits your fps. You want to disable it (from your GPU control panel) to reach higher framerates!

[monkey0506]

I was going to say that these two blurbs from that same entry in the manual seem relevant:

Note that if you set a speed which the player's computer cannot handle (for example, a 486 will not be able to manage 80 fps), then it will go as fast as possible.

NOTE: If you set the System.VSync property to true, the game speed will be capped at the screen's refresh rate, so you will be unable to set it higher than 60-85 (depending on the player's screen refresh).

[chucklas]

I didn't think to look into disabling VSync in the GPU.  That leads to a new issue, in the intel integraded HD graphics, there is no option to disable vsync.  It instead had 2 options, on or application settings.  I have not turned VSync on in AGS, but I also certain AGS does nothing to disable it either.  Looks like I have no solution here (except to get a new video card).

[chucklas]

HAHA!  Turning the setting to ALWAYS ON fixed my problem.  I have no idea why, but it worked.  lol.

EDIT:  Nope, it didn't.  It worked the first time I ran my game, but the next time it was back to its old habit.  On my other machine I disabled VSync in the GUI manager and it did nothing for me.

[chucklas]

Well, I found a work around.

http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=42930.msg570203#msg570203

[chucklas]

Another interesting thing about that work around is that by opening windows media player, or itunes, the problem does not get resolved.  It only happens once I play a song.  I can then stop the song and it continues to work fine.  Once iTunes or Windows Media Player closes, the FPS drops back to 60. 

So the question becomes, what (with the i7 chip in Windows 7) changes when music is being played that would cause the 60fps limit to be dropped?  Or is it that for some reason my CPU is not dedicating resources for increased fps for AGS even though I have only 3-5% use on my CPU?

[EchosofNezhyt]

Based on the thread they said it had to do with the priority of the process, If you go to task manager and right click "Yourgame.exe" you can change the priority.

I'm curious why you need more then 60fps?

[chucklas]

Changing the priority does nothing.  It's weird.

I need above 60fps just for increasing speed settings in my games.  As of now, I increase the gamespeed so my character will walk faster...etc, and nothing speeds up, at all. 

[EchosofNezhyt]

If I turn up set game speed mine runs crazy fast.

You can change your walk speed and all that.

[chucklas]

Yeah, frito. That's the point of the thread.  If I don't have an audio file playing and then paused in the background speed settings don't do anything on my machine.  The speed settings adjust your fps.  Mine is capped at about 60 but can jump to anything with iTunes or windows media player going.  I think it is an issue with Win 7 64 bit and the i7 CPU. It is nice to have a work around, but if there is a setting that can be changed somewhere, I would much rather do that.

[Calin Leafshade]

I need above 60fps just for increasing speed settings in my games.  As of now, I increase the gamespeed so my character will walk faster...etc, and nothing speeds up, at all. 

I see what youre going for here but this is a bad way to do it.

The GameSpeed setting is tied to the rendering so increasing the GameSpeed to increase the speed at which things happen in your game is not going to be predictable on a lot of systems since they are going to be capped by their graphics cards ability to render the scene that many times.

A better way to do this would be to change the characters walk speed and objects' animation speeds.

[chucklas]

I totally agree that that would work (with games I make), but I do not have that control over other peoples games.  Also, if I were making a game when the character has additional walk cycles, say for running (where I adjust the walk speed for that) it is much easier to just adjust the game speed setting.